Housing authority's strategic plan calls for 2,000 mixed income units in next 10 years

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday; a discussion of the capital improvement plan is scheduled for the first half of the meeting

Where: Boulder Municipal Building, 1777 Broadway

More info: Study sessions are open to the public, but there is no public comment period. To read the memo on Boulder Housing Partners' strategic plan and see the complete agenda, go to bit.ly/V5aeR9.

In 2000, Boulder had more than 24,000 housing units either priced at under $300,000 for sale or $1,000 a month for rent. In 2012, it was a little over 12,000, according to an analysis by Boulder Housing Partners.

If those trends continue, within a decade, the only housing in Boulder within reach for people making less than $60,000 a year will be deed-restricted housing built under the city's affordable housing requirements and housing owned by affordable housing providers like BHP and Thistle Communities, BHP leaders said in a memo to City Council.

To preserve a portion of that moderately priced housing, Boulder Housing Partners wants to add 2,000 units to its portfolio over the next 10 years, with much of that housing aimed not at the poorest of the poor but at moderate-income working people.

The goal is part of Boulder Housing Partners' update to its strategic plan, which will be presented to the Boulder City Council during a study session Tuesday.

Boulder Housing Partners is Boulder's housing authority. Its board members are appointed by the mayor, but it operates independently from the city.

'The market is losing its ability to respond'

"We're trying to introduce the concept of preservation of market-affordable units," BHP Executive Director Betsey Martens said. "The market is a really important partner in providing affordable housing, and the market is losing its ability to respond to people working in Boulder."

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Martens said BHP is not changing its commitment to provide housing for the most vulnerable, as in the "housing first" apartment building for chronically homeless people under construction at 1175 Lee Hill Drive and the 59-unit affordable senior housing at 4990 Moorhead Avenue that opened this summer. That was the first entirely affordable senior housing built in the city since 1982.

BHP's strategic plan calls for another 250 units for special and vulnerable populations to be built in the next 10 years.

Boulder Housing Partners already operates market-rate apartment buildings and affordable rentals for people making up to 80 percent of area median income, or $44,750 for a single adult and $63,900 for a family of four.

Martens called the update to the strategic plan an "enhancement" of the housing authority's traditional goals.

"We are challenging ourselves to respond to community needs that are much more pressing than they were five years ago," Martens said, referring to the loss of market housing affordable to the middle class.

That could involve building new housing or buying existing apartment buildings and managing them to keep rents reasonable.

In studies of the city's housing market and changing demographics, Boulder officials have noted a loss of the "economic middle" — people making between $65,000 and $150,000 -— as well as families with children.

"As the city's housing authority, BHP plans to take an active role in preserving economic diversity and housing opportunities for those who the market currently and traditionally cannot reach," the strategic plan says. "We believe that an aggressive community response and intervention can change the course of the loss of diversity in our city."

Boulder Housing Partners is updating its plan as the city is in the process of developing its Comprehensive Housing Strategy.

Jeff Yegian, manager of Boulder's division of housing, said some aspects of the city's housing strategy, like potentially making it easier to create cooperative housing, won't have much impact on BHP, but proposed land use changes to provide more density bonuses and provide more flexibility around certain regulations for affordable housing projects could make it easier for BHP to develop new housing.

BHP's strategic plan also calls for the organization to be a more vocal advocate for such policies.

Yegian said he participated in the BHP board retreat that started the strategic plan update, and two BHP staff members are on the team helping to develop the city's Comprehensive Housing Strategy.

"We work together very closely, both on a project level and on a strategic level," he said.

Gail Promboin, a north Boulder resident who opposed the construction of 1175 Lee Hill Drive but has since worked with BHP in developing the management plan for that site, said she remains concerned that too much affordable housing is being built in north Boulder, instead of spreading that housing around the city.

She said she hopes Boulder Housing Partners learned from the contentious experience at 1175 Lee Hill that it needs to include neighborhoods early in the process when it is selecting sites. She said was she was disappointed BHP didn't do more neighborhood outreach in developing its strategic plan.

"I think the process on 1175 has taught them some things and they have the capacity to be a better neighbor than they have in the past," she said. "Whether they live up to that is an open question."

She said Boulder Housing Partners also needs to keep a close eye on how funding priorities at the federal and state level may shift over time so that as it expands its holdings, it has money for maintenance and renovations.

Martens said the next step for BHP is determining what kinds of affordable housing financing might be available to build or buy housing for a working population that in most other cities would not require subsidies.

"We are testing the feasibility of the middle of the market for financial support," she said. "We need to see what that looks like. We need a new way, and that is a bold challenge for ourselves."

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